Magnus K Giver

Magnus K Giver was owner and captain of the Norwegian vessel Laura, which was charted by Max Fleischmann in 1906 to take a small group of friends and relatives on a United States hunting trip to Svalbard waters. The expedition sailed to Spitsbergen in June, making excursions in Isfjorden where they hunted for reindeer and birds. In July, they headed west toward Greenland, hunting for seals along the way, but thick ice impeded their progress. They continued hunting for seals and bears in that region until August, when they began their return to Norway. The following year, Giver's ship was chartered by Alfred Leverkus and a number of German friends on a German Norwegian sport-hunting expedition. Laura entered the ice of the Greenland Sea on 29 July 1907 and soon afterwards the passengers began hunting for seals and bears. In August, members of the expedition landed briefly on the east coast of Greenland at Sabine and Shannon. Later in the month, the ship entered dense pack ice and became beset, drifting off the coast of Liverpool Land before eventually breaking free in September. The expedition arrived in Troms in October.

From the guide to the Magnus Giver collection, 1881, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)